I arrived at about 8:30 at the campsite/refugee camp (im not overstating, this place was really not great!) and said goodbye to Simone. I had enjoyed myself so much staying with him.
As i said, we had sung in the Rugby World Cup together, and it was really great to see him, not only to catch up with a great mate, but remember the World Cup and watch the videos and look at the photos and swap stories, it was great fun.
However, today was easter Sunday, and we were so excited to actually be going to the Vatican mass, i mean THE mass, this is something i had been wanting to do my whole life, and we were so happy we were here at this time. A couple of my mates had left at about 5:30 fearing the worse with the crowds, we laughed when we got there and were only about 50m back from them, at 10:30!
The mass itself was great to be at and experience, and all, and take communion blessed by the pope! We just couldnt believe the crowds! But to be honest it really only filled up right before 11 when the mass started, so we were in a good spot, and got a good view of the whole thing, and really enjoyed seeing it all and being there together.
That afternoon, we looked some of the other sights. Rome is a really hard place to see, because, honestly, there is too much to see! You could spend weeks there and still not get through everything. However, ive tossed my coin into the Fountain di Teveri, and as the legend says, it means im going to come back to rome, and so i suppose i can check out the rest when i get back!!!! haha.
We enjoyed seeing the sights, but thought that really experiencing Rome was important too, not just the tourist traps. So we spent a lot of time, sitting, eating pizza, pasta, or one of the thousand gelatos we each ate, and just talking and people watching, and enjoying being where we were. It was absolutely awesome!
That night we went back to Camping Roma and had a great night. We all had dinner together, and then went to the local watering hole. It was the first night id been out with the boys since i got to Rome. It was so much fun. We played pool, joked, and talked, just like we were sitting in the Oaks or the Longie, or good old Megahole back in Sydney, i think i got a little homesick from that! But going out with these boys was so much better than going out in Graz, i just think because these are my closest mates, and i know them so well, and i dunno, it was just good to go out with them and enjoy the time we had seeing eachother. It was such an awesome time! We were not looking forward to the next day, however.
Paz